Joual or Patois

By Juliana L’Heureux

While visiting a bookstore in York County recently, a
lady behind the counter expressed a common misperception about the French
language spoken by Franco-Americans. "Franco-Americans do not speak real
French," she said.

Sometimes, perceptions are difficult to confront, even
when they are blatantly wrong. In fact, Franco-Americans speak "real French"
but with a special accent peculiar to the North American continent.

Frequently, the local Franco-American dialect (not always
recognized as "real French") is called "patois" because it is an accent,
like American Southerners speak when talking English to a New Englander.

Another common difference in the Franco-American dialect
is called "joual", which is a slang form of the French language with roots
in the La Beauce region of Quebec, says Norman Beaupre, a Biddeford native
and University of New England professor.

"Joual is a particular kind of patois," says Beaupre.
For example, the French word "joual" actually means, "horse".

"Joual is just a peculiar way of saying things," says
Beaupre.

Perhaps the most famous fan of the Franco-American dialect
was writer and novelist Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), who grew up speaking
French in Lowell, Mass. Kerouac labeled his family’s particular Lowell
"patois" a "languagy-language" because he found it to be more expressive
than formal French.

Kerouac’s fans defend the writers love of his native French
dialect. "The Regional French spoken by Kerouac in Lowell and his by brethren
was not ‘joual’. Instead, he spoke Franco-American French. He spoke the
kind of language spoken by the French, who live around New England," writes
Mary Sands, a writer who reports on Kerouac for the "Beat
Generation News" in Lowell. Furthermore, joual is not a written language,
says Sands. Instead, it is a distinct sounding language, an oral form of
French-Canadian-French.

"To say the French spoken in Lowell, Mass is, or was,
"joual", in my view, takes away something from the status of the unique
form of Franco-American expression," says Sands.

"Although Sands is technically correct, I believe Kerouac’s
mother, Gabrielle, may have used some joual in her informal French", responds
Beaupre.

French-Canadians who immigrated to New England in the
19th century surely brought along some joual with their patois.
Eventually, these Francos added "Americanisms" to their dialect as well.
For example, a Franco-Americanism for a Protestant Church is a "meetan"
(pronounced "meeet-ain") because the religious liturgies were spoken in
English (not in French), like a New England town meeting.

In rural Northern Maine’s St. John Valley, the French
language evolved differently due to the isolation of the communities from
one another writes Madawaska newspaper publisher Don Levesque. Consequently,
travelers to the St. John Valley who understand French typically hear differences
in pronunciations of certain words depending on the town they visit. Additionally,
it is common to find an expression in one particular St. John Valley town
but never hear it spoken in other towns.

Understandably, in the four centuries since the first
French settlers arrived in North America, the Canadian and the Franco-American
French has evolved and developed into a distinctive communication. Canadian-Franco-American-French
remains a true language because almost all the important vocabulary is
the same regardless of what "patois" is spoken. Yes indeed, even people
who speak Canadian patois and Quebec joual are absolutely French speaking
people.